LA SECTION INTERNATIONALE BRITANNIQUE
DU COLLÈGE VOLTAIRE
The Cité Scolaire Voltaire is a Parisian public middle-school (collège) and high-school (lycée) located in the 11th arrondissement of the French capital. The Collège Voltaire opened its English-speaking Section — the British International Section, or SIB, — in 2021.
*Collège Voltaire OPEN DAY on FEBRUARY 7, 2026, from 9AM-12PM*
The Paris SIBs will hold a video call at 8PM on JANUARY 26, 2026, to talk through the admissions process and answer questions.
To join the call, please register here.
This informational website is written and edited by the Voltaire SIB Parents’ Association. For the official school website, please click here.
Collège Voltaire SIB
Intense Immersion in English
The SIB classes offer 4 hours of English tuition per week with a focus on literature, in addition to the hours already allocated to the study of English language. Half of the time allotted to the study of history and geography is also in English (1h30 per week from 6ème to 4ème and 1h45 in 3ème).
Dedicated Native-Speaking Teachers
The Collège has two dedicated English language and literature teachers, Mrs Turner and Mrs Blaschke, who joined Collège Voltaire in 2022.
We also have an English-language History-Geography teacher, Mrs Dubile, who joined Collège Voltaire for the rentrée 2023, and teaches both the French and English components.
International Students
The SIB students at Collège Voltaire primarily come through the French elementary school education system and live in the North and East of Paris.
Many are French nationals, but also nationals of other English-speaking countries (Ireland, Australia, Canada, UK, USA … …).
Either one, or both, parents may be native English speakers, but our students and parents are almost certainly anglophiles!
Curriculum
The pupils follow the standard French national curriculum from 6ème (year 7 / 6th grade) to Terminale (upper 6th / 12th grade), to which is added 4 hours of English language and literature. The required 3 hours of history and geography, taught as a single subject in France, is either a) augmented with 1 – 2 hours of history and geography in English, or b) split between English and French.
Rectorate Support
In the International Sections of Paris public schools, the additional teaching hours in English are financed by the Paris rectorate, and are free of cost to the parents.
Brevet “Option Internationale”
At the end of Collège, students sit Brevet exams, which contain an international component for the students enrolled in the International Sections – namely specific additional assessments in English and in History-Geography. If the students are successful at this level, they receive their Brevet with the mention “option internationale”.
Association de la Section Internationale Britannique du Collège Voltaire 